1. Politics and power

Snapshot: The Australian Prime Minister: leading the power game?
The study of politics—What is power?—Key aspects of power

1. What is meant by the phrase ‘power is an essentially contested concept’? Contested how and by whom?

2. What is meant by a ‘three-dimensional’ concept of power? Differentiate between the concepts of one, two and three-dimensional power as described by Luke.

4. What is an example of three-dimensional power in practice?

3. Do you agree with Foucault that power is something that is ‘exercised rather than possessed’?

5. Do you think that government policy should tend towards the normative (i.e. prescribing what should be) or the populist (i.e. expressing the will of the people)?

6. Discuss the role of the Prime Minister in the Australian system of government. Where does the power lie in the cabinet? What are some of the constraints on the individual power of the PM?

7. List some examples of ‘political communities’, geographical and otherwise.

Resources

Sociology.Org: Theories of Power (1) PDF

Rodney Smith (ed), Politics in Australia, pp17-23
Read an extract (PDF)

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet